


and there is nothing left remarkable beneath the visiting moon

by funkysnailanon



Category: A Crown of Candy - Fandom, Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Drabble, Post-Episode 6, Theo’s POV after that whole mess because I have FEELINGS, takes place after they’ve escaped the cathedral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24179194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funkysnailanon/pseuds/funkysnailanon
Summary: The Chancellor is dead.
Relationships: Lapin Cadbury & Theobald Gumbar
Comments: 26
Kudos: 120





	and there is nothing left remarkable beneath the visiting moon

The city at night is dark and deep, rows upon rows of houses and pavilions and other buildings that form an impossible labyrinth as they run to escape the threat of execution too close behind them. There is not a single star in the sky, and as he shepherds the royal family and Liam through the streets of Comida, Theobald could not care less.

The princesses are the quickest, small and light footed, steps hardly touching the ground below them as they navigate through the twists and turns of the city. They look as though they have never felt heavier. They are also, for once, silent — their chatter has been killed, and their hands are held tight in a white knuckled grip. But, they are safe, and that is all that matters.

The King is lumbering behind them. His towering body is hunched, smaller than it should be as they run through the city. His shadow snatches by in quick dashes when they pass under a stray light. They are all silent, but his lord’s silence — the King, who’s voice is loud and booming even when he whispers — is felt the hardest. But, he is safe, and that is all that matters.

Liam is in front of Theo. He’s an agile kid, but he keeps stumbling now, almost falling behind, and Theo has to keep catching him, pushing him forwards — and he does not feel good about it, but he trusts Liam to understand that they cannot stop for him to cry. Theo understands loneliness well, and this kid just became a little more alone in a world that already was not forgiving towards him. But, he is safe, and that is all that matters.

Theo is last. He doesn’t know where they’re going, but they have to get out of the city, out of Comida. But after that... where can they go? The Church is everywhere. Candia is no longer theirs, no longer safe. They are branded enemies of the Concord, the very thing they were fighting so hard to preserve. Theo cannot see a version of this in which his charges, the royal family, does not suffer. He does not know how he can keep them all safe.

The Chancellor is dead. 

The cathedral is long behind them, and Theo cannot bring himself to look back. There is a static shard of memory, of standing on the balcony and looking down at the Chancellor’s prone, bludgeoned body, and turning away to break down the stone crossbeams. There is a terrible hiss in his skull, in his throat, a tight vice on his lungs — they left the Chancellor to die. But there was no other way. The royal family must be kept safe, above all else, and that is all that matters.

(But maybe he could’ve done _something.)_

There was a crunch. It echoed. They were outside, and they could not see, but they _heard._ Theo has seen people die before. He has lost people before. It happens all the time. But the sting of it — terrible, terrible sting, the poison of having to come to understand, every time, that a person can be utterly _destroyed._ That in a split second, you can lose every opportunity to talk to someone, to ask them questions, to know their opinions and their knowledge and their reaction. That you can wonder, now, forever, how this or that may have come to pass had they still been... had there... 

It does not matter.

Cadbury is dead, and he made death proud to take him, but he is _gone._

Theo swallows his guilt, and it nestles in his gut and flicks its tongue. He must keep the family safe. He must ensure the princesses learn to bear this loss, and that the King does not spiral and self-destruct, and that Liam does not drown in that same guilt and spite that Theo has suffered before. They do not have time to mourn. They may not have time to mourn for a long time.

He sees a flash of the stained glass window of the cathedral, of Keradin’s bloodshot eyes and blank face as he turned to them, of blood and death, and he swears quietly to himself that he will avenge this sacrifice. It will not be in vain. It cannot be in vain.

Lapin is dead.

Theo bites back his grief and runs.

**Author's Note:**

> anyways, episode six, am i right? title comes from Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra :-)
> 
> message me on tumblr at @22hildaboulevard!
> 
> comments are always appreciated!


End file.
